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The Atlanta Georgian,
Thursday, 5th March 1914,
7th Edition (Final),
PAGE 1, COLUMN 1.
### SENTENCE DAY KEPT SECRET
Court Wants to Avoid Crowds of Curious. Date Given to Attorneys.
The date for the resentencing to death of Leo M. Frank has been fixed by Judge Ben Hill, but Thursday was being kept secret. The information has been given to Hugh Dorsey, Solicitor, and Reuben Arnold, chief counsel for the defense. But the information was in strict confidence.
It is known that Judge Hill desires to have Frank brought to the courthouse and sentenced with no large crowd of curious and possibly clamorous bystanders.
"I can't tell you anything about the hour," said Mr. Arnold, "and I can't say that it won't be at night, even. But it will be when the usual courtroom crowd is not there. That's all I can say."
### All Depends on Judge.
There was an impression that the sentence would be re-pronounced late Thursday. Judge Hill declined positively to say anything about it.
It all depends on the judge now. Mr. Dorsey has filed his habeas corpus writ, and whenever the judge desires to impose the sentence, he has only to send for the prisoner.
"You can't fool all the people all the time," quoted Leo M. Frank, commenting Thursday on the latest developments in his case. And he is sure that William J. Burns, who has announced that he is in the case to the finish, will do his part toward the enlightenment of the people of Georgia. He was confident Burns will get the truth.
Frank also found a source of gratification in the statement by John Black, city detective, who was promising to black somebody's eyes unless the accusations of a frame-up ceased to be hurled at him.
"When you are in a shooting gallery," said Frank, "and hit the bull's-eye, you know what happens the bell rings. John Black's roar of defiance this morning sounds to me like the ringing of a bell."
### "Light Is Breaking," He Says.
"He says he's 'tired of these accusations.' I have no doubt of it. He's mighty tired; but not as tired as he's going to be."
"The light is breaking. I can see a clearing glow even in the direction of Decatur Street, over the police station. It has been my experience of life that a man doesn't make a fuss until he is hurt. John Black is making a fuss. You can draw your own conclusions."
Frank declined to comment on the statement of George W. Epps that his son's recent affidavit, retracting his testimony of the trial, was false.
"I do not care to take issue with parental authority over a young boy," he said. "After all, the boy is only a child. But you know that the workings of conscience are very marked in children, more so, it seems, than after the children grow up."
"That is where this great mass of testimony is coming from now the conscience. Nina Formby's conscience, Albert Mc Knight's conscience, George Epps' conscience they are all at work."
"The human conscience is a wonderful thing. I should say it was a spark of the divine, implanted in the human breast to raise man above the brutal doctrine that might makes right. But for conscience, the stronger would dominate the weaker, and the weaker would submit without a struggle."
"Whenever you find the weaker man or class rising against an oppression to which it would be easier to submit, you will find conscience as the spur. It always has been so. The repudiation of all this testimony at the trial is the voice of conscience lifted against the work of fear and oppression."
### Thinks Burns May Be Here.
Frank was not at all certain that Detective Burns had gone to New York, as stated.
"He is a shrewd workman, I am told," said Frank. "It might be that he is running a trolley car somewhere in Atlanta. It seems that his methods are not at all public when he is on a case. I am very glad to know that he is on this one to the finish. There can be but one finish a triumphant vindication for me."
Leonard Haas, of counsel for Leo M. Frank, said Thursday that in spite of threats from accused officers, the defense would go right ahead trying to show that testimony against the convicted man was manufactured, and expected to furnish more proof before the extraordinary motion for a new trial was filed with Judge Ben Hill.
"Chief Lanford says the Epps affidavit is false because the boy says John Black asked him to make his story agree with Conley's story before Conley had even been arrested. Well, Epps says he was approached in May and Conley was arrested April 29," said Haas.
"I see that Black threatens physical harm to anyone that accuses him of framing evidence. We are going ahead getting all the evidence we can and threats will not stop us. We will have more proof of this terrible conspiracy before we are through."
Chief Lanford reiterated his belief in the truth of the evidence dug up by the police. "The truth will stand," he said, "and all this ridiculous falsifying will be unavailing."
### Epps Scores Son's Affidavit.
The Frank case now has reached the stage where at least one house is divided against itself, and a Statewide organization is contradicting and deploring the assertions of the leading lawyer for the defense.
George W. Epps, father of the Epps boy who has made an affidavit that he swore to a false story in the trial of Leo Frank, has issued a statement that his son told the truth on the stand and an untruth in his repudiation.
Epps asserts that his son told him all the circumstances connected with his seeing Mary Phagan on a streetcar shortly before she was murdered. He says the boy confided in him several days before he (the boy) had ever seen John Black the detective accused in the boy's affidavit as "framing up" the testimony. Epps asserts that the boy's testimony, as given on the stand, was exactly what he had told his father and mother before the inquest even.
"My son told me the story first," said Epps. "I made him give me the details, and he did so, precisely as he gave them later on the witness stand. This so-called affidavit states that the first I knew of my son's testimony was after the inquest. That is absolutely false, and the whole affidavit manifestly is untrue."
### Boy Now in Reformatory.
Epps is night superintendent of the Candler Annex building. His son now is in Milledgeville, serving a sentence in the reformatory there. The affidavit that roused the ire of his father was made at that place.
The differences between Luther Rosser and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce regarding the famous case were expressed in a telegram Wednesday night to The New York Times, which had published an interview with Mr. Rosser, in which it was said that the anti-Jewish feeling in Georgia, the prejudice of the employee against the employer, and some local prejudice against a stranger, had had much to do with Frank's trial being unfair.
The State Chamber of Commerce, through Charles D. Mc Kinney, telegraphed a statement to The Times requesting its publication Thursday, concluding as follows:
Without expressing any opinion on the merits of the Frank case, this organization can only account for Attorney Rosser's misstatements concerning (1) the alleged anti-Jewish feeling in Georgia, and (2) that there is any prejudice to be found in this State of the employee class against the employer, and (3) that there is any local prejudice against a stranger on account of his zeal for his client. Atlanta's Jewish population has gained over 100 per cent during the past ten years and they number among our most respected and best citizens.
### Strangers Welcomed.Atlanta and the whole State of Georgia not only have no prejudice against a stranger, but we cordially invite manufacturers and investors, farmers, and the better class of immigrants to make their homes and engage in business among us. The statement of Attorney Rosser concerning "some local prejudice against a stranger" is doubly absurd when it is known that the heads of our public service corporation, many of the banks and largest business houses and manufacturing concerns came to Atlanta from New England, the North and the Middle West.
In the name of fairness to Atlanta and the entire State of Georgia, this statewide organization requests your publication of this telegram in your issue of Thursday morning.
John Black, the detective, recently so much coupled with the term "frame-up," also has made a statement denouncing all such insinuations and promising that there will be "some eyes blackened" if the "dirty accusations" continue.
"The Epps boy made his statement to me voluntarily," said the detective. "He was brought to headquarters by J. W. Coleman, Mary Phagan's stepfather. He gave his statement without any kind of instructions or suggestions, and several persons besides myself heard it."
"When he had finished I told him he would have to tell the story at the Coroner's inquest, and he readily agreed. That was the last I saw of him until the inquest."
Tired of Bunk, He Says.
"The story he first told me, his testimony at the inquest, and that at the trial, all were identical.
"Now, I'm getting mighty tired of all this bunk about a frame-up. It doesn't worry me, because I can easily see what a tight place the accusers are in. But I'm not going to let these dirty lies continue. I had probably as much to do with the Phagan investigation as any other man, but there is no man, living or dead, who can truthfully say that I turned the weight of my little finger to crookedness or trickery. I have done my duty straight through and now I consider it my duty to whip the man who charges me with crookedness. I mean that."
William J. Burns, the detective, will soon be actually at work on the famous case. He will return to Atlanta within a few days.
"My investigation will be absolutely impartial," he said to The Georgian. "This is a mysterious and interesting case, and I am going to follow it to the end, without regard to whom it may help or hurt."
Judge Hill would not talk Thursday about the resentencing of Frank, but it is known that he has fixed no definite date. There is no doubt that the sentence will be merely a formality that is, the original penalty of death will be merely reinflicted. Frank's lawyers will make no attempt to have Judge Hill change it to a life term, centering all their efforts on the later fight for a new trial on an extraordinary motion.
PAGE 2, COLUMN 1
DETECTIVE BURNS
GETTING DATA TO
SIFT FRANK CASE
W. J. Burns, on right; Milton Klein, left, and Dr. Wildauer, center.